LESTER A. HOEL (1935-2022)

BY NICHOLAS J. GARBER AND
KUMARES C. SINHA

LESTER A. HOEL, a celebrated transportation engineering educator and researcher, died on April 19, 2022, at the age of 87.

He was born in Brooklyn, New York, during the Great Depression, on Feb. 26, 1935, to Norwegian immigrants Johannes and Julie Hoel. He liked to joke that nobody “planned” to have children at that time — but that people benefited greatly from being part of the “scarce generation.” Growing up as the child of a cabinet maker and a homemaker, Lester dreamed of exploring a world beyond Brooklyn. Being a bright and studious child, he easily excelled. He attended Brooklyn Technical High School, City College of New York (BCE), the Polytechnic Institute of New York (now NYU), where he earned his master’s in civil engineering, and later the University of California, Berkeley, where he earned his doctorate in civil engineering and specialized in transportation. His belief that “a winner never quits and a quitter never wins” enabled him to embrace any task with enthusiasm. He was also known for saying, “If it is worth doing at all, it is worth doing well.”

Lester’s long and distinguished academic career began at San Diego State College (now San Diego State University), and then he joined the Civil Engineering Program at the Carnegie Institute of Technology (currently Carnegie Mellon University) in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. There he attained the rank of professor and served as associate director of the Transportation Research Institute. In 1974, he accepted an offer from the School of Engineering and Applied Science at the University of Virginia (UVA), becoming the Hamilton Professor and chair of the Civil Engineering Department, a position he held for over 15 years. In 1999, he was honored by his appointment as the L.A. Lacey Distinguished Professor of Engineering, and then went on to serve as the director of the Center for Transportation Studies. During his tenure as chair, he significantly improved the national standing of UVA’s Civil Engineering Department, particularly its transportation program, which became one of the leading programs in the nation with the annual research expenditure increasing four-fold. He retired in 2009 at the age of 74 as the L.A. Lacy Distinguished Professor Emeritus.

Lester’s career encompassed research, education, and professional leadership. His research focused primarily on transportation planning, traffic safety, and public transportation. Pioneering the consideration of multimodal aspects in transportation planning, his work helped inform policies and engineering practices aimed at reducing crashes and fatalities on roads. While his early research explored ways to improve public transportation planning, operations, and financing, he went on to contribute to the optimization of traffic signal timings, lane configurations, and intersection designs.

As an educator, Lester mentored numerous students and played a key role in expanding the future workforce of transportation engineers in the United States and abroad. He also taught courses for naval personnel, which required him to visit at least two naval bases in the U.S. and internationally each year. His commitment to education left a lasting impact on the field.

Traveling as part of his “Professional Program in Urban Transportation,” Lester studied the transportation systems of Paris, London, Munich, Stockholm, Montreal, among other places, and brought back lessons learned to improve urban transportation in the U.S. Giving freely of his time to professional organizations, Lester served leadership roles on numerous technical committees and panels associated with the Transportation Research Board (TRB) of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, including serving as the chair of TRB’s executive committee.

Lester was a prolific author. In addition to publishing numerous archival articles and research reports, he authored or co-authored a dozen monographs and books including the highly successful textbook, Traffic and Highway Engineering (Cengage Learning, 5th ed., 2019). His other books include Transportation Infrastructure Engineering: A Multi-Modal Integration (Cengage Learning, 2007) and Public Transportation (Prentice Hall, 2nd ed., 1991).

He received numerous awards and honors, including a Fulbright Fellowship, which allowed him to teach in his beloved Norway. At age 54, he was elected a member of the National Academy of Engineering. He was also a fellow of the Institute of Transportation Engineers (ITE) and a “Distinguished Member” of the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE). His office wall was covered with framed awards and plaques, reflecting a deep sense of pride and humility earned through a lifelong commitment to hard work.

In addition to his remarkable professional accomplishments, Lester was an outstanding husband and father who deeply believed in his wife and daughters. His wife, Unni, would frequently refer to him by saying, “He was a great man.” He strongly believed that quality time with family was of the utmost importance. When his daughters — Julie, Sonja, and Lisa — were children, he and Unni would load up the Buick and the entire family would drive at least once every summer to Crystal Lake in Michigan. Staying during these trips every year in the same cottage on the lake as they did, Lester taught the kids how to swim and always made time to play games with them. True to his nature as an educator, he also turned these trips into learning opportunities, incorporating classroom activities such as multiplication exercises. A similar winter tradition took them to Sanibel Island, where family bonding remained a priority. Lester loved dinnertime conversations with his family, and during their trips and at home, they would regularly have dinners at nice restaurants — but with a strict no distractions rule to encourage meaningful discussions. The girls were free to order any item on the menu — on the condition that they had to finish what they chose.

One of Lester’s favorite activities with his family was to tell stories about his favorite dog, a German Shepherd named Chris. This reflected his love for dogs, a characteristic Julie inherited. The family always had a dog when the girls were growing up.

Lester was very proud of his Norwegian heritage and, having learned Norwegian from his parents, he could speak it fluently. He loved the occasions when Unni’s friends would express how much they were impressed that her American husband could fluently speak Norwegian. He often joked that “being married to a Norwegian builds character.” Norwegian was Lester and Unni’s “secret language.”

An excellent tennis player, he could always hit a ball to where his opponent was not. He particularly loved playing with Sonja and Lisa. While attending a tennis camp at the Boar’s Head Resort in Charlottesville with Sonja, he condescended to be in a less-advanced group with her.

It was important to Lester’s parents that each of their children learn to play an instrument, and he developed a deep love for playing the violin. Playing at church, and later with friends — he loved playing duets with his piano-performing companions. A gifted musician, he could learn any song by ear. Fritz Kreisler and The Statler Brothers were among his favorite musicians, as he loved both classical and country music. A passionate transportation history enthusiast, Lester admired David McCullough, author of The Wright Brothers, The Paths Between the Seas, and The Great Bridge. McCullough was not only his favorite author but also a friend. He was a loyal member of the Rotary Club in both Charlottesville and St. Helena. A lifelong sports fan, he started as a Brooklyn Dodgers fan, later becoming a San Francisco Giants fan, and would never forget the day when he watched Matt Cain pitch a no-hitter in 2014. Believing as he did in living “one day at a time,” he practiced yoga and meditation each morning.

Lester truly loved and was beloved by his friends, family, and students. He cherished deep meaningful conversations and is remembered for his fantastic smile, amazing attitude, and wisdom. He continues to share that wisdom with the world in his book, I’ll Have to Remember That: Ten Ideas for Living (CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform, 2010). He often advised young people, “If you don’t know where you are going, any road will get you there.” He also believed “a soft answer will turn away anger.”

A naturally empathetic and kind person, Lester had a gift for connecting with others. At social gatherings, he would often focus on one individual, eager to learn as much as he could about them. As a professor, he would always dress up for classes in a Brooks Brothers suit and a Ferragamo tie. He often said that whenever he wore his tie, someone would compliment him on how nice he looked.

In 2009, Lester moved to St. Helena, California, to be closer to family, leaving behind both Charlottesville, Virginia, and Duck, North Carolina. In 2016, he moved to the San Francisco Towers and spent the last few summers at Walloon Lake in Northern Michigan. He is survived by his wife, Unni, to whom he was married for 63 years; his three daughters, Julie Bryan, Sonja Perkins, and Lisa Rafael; and his son-in-law, Jon Perkins. To his four grandchildren, Tyler, Emma, Jordan Rafael, and Jack, he was lovingly known as “Bestefar.” Lester’s legacy lives on through the countless people whose lives he touched.